TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Top: MQ-9 Reaper UAV Photo (Public Domain) by  Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt Bottom: Sypaq Corvo Cardboard Drone W hat do you think of when you hear the term 'drone warfare'? Chances are those Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) used by the United States Military come to mind because, of course, right? Drone warfare is high tech, it's the future. I'm probably one of the last people to know but Australian company Sypaq and the Ukraine Military have been changing the face of drone warfare with small cardboard (well, technically foamboard but it's a type of padded cardboard) drones that cost only a couple of thousand dollars, sold as flat packs that can be constructed in about an hour, on site. The Sypaq Corvo Precision Payload Delivery System Drones are actually intended for logistics use - which I imagine is planning and strategizing based on information collected with the difficult to detect, reusable drones.  However, the drones are also designed to be disposable and, with ...

D ave Filoni continues to mine his one idea for Star Wars animation with his latest ten part series,  Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord . Not that I have a big problem with that. At this point I'm hooked on all his Star Wars animated shows, but I do wish he would try something different with the basic story structure every now and then. However, young, inexperienced apprentice, either already teamed, or looking to be teamed with a Jedi Master (or in this case, reluctantly with a former Sith Lord) is a main character combination that just keeps giving in the Filoni-verse. The difference between shows is in the detail. Maul - Shadow Lord focuses on the Star Wars Underworld, local law enforcement, and the aforementioned Jedi Apprentice. As well it includes Star Wars lore that is usually less prominent in the animated shows, specifically the dominance of the Empire and how it changes a society once its ideology is imposed.  If you've only ever watched the feature films you'll likel...

Original Artwork: Mocha and Mascarpone. Work in progress. T here are now two ways you can purchase prints of my Art Cats, one which includes the option to buy the original artwork if it is still available, and you can even commission a custom Art Cat painting. Why would you want one of my whimsical cat paintings? Well, if you want to bring the same sense of crazy fun into your home as perfectly content house cat with the zoomies, then that's the vibe I'm going for with my whimsical art cats. Place my quirky art cats in any space where you want to radiate positive vibes and smiles. I particularly recommend putting my art in creative spaces such as your home office, art studio, book nook, or even your kid's rooms. Pretty much anywhere that you want a feel good burst of inspiration and a content smile. Now you know the why, here's where you can start collecting my art online... (why wouldn't you want more reasons to smile in your home?!) Some of the options you have wh...

Y ou wouldn't know it from this blog, where I reference it a handful of posts , but I am a big fan of the rebooted 2003  Battlestar Galactica Series . Which is how I come to be Facebook following the series most recognised Cylon, Six - well the actress who plays six anyway, Tricia Helfer . One thing you'll learn pretty quickly about Tricia is that she owns a lot of rescue cats - and that she's more at home being a farm/country girl, surrounding herself with animals than she is living in cities - though she definitely seems to drift between the two worlds with ease. Cats and Goats Tricia with Larry and Earl. Still from Tricia Helfer's FB Video . However, this is a blog post about a cat and goats, specifically Trica's Goats, Larry and Earl, that currently live at the Farm of the Free . She posted a video of herself visiting them on her Facebook . Click the link for the full video. Cat at Farm of the Free with Tricia, Larry, & Earl. Still from Tricia Helfer's F...

The Glenelg Giant Wheel. T he Glenelg foreshore and Cafe/Shopping strip (Jetty Road) at the end of the tramline from Adelaide, South Australia is arguably one of the must visit tourist regions of the city. It particularly has a lot to offer families with, not just the beach, but quite a number of playgrounds and grassed reserves as well. My partner booked us a post weekend, two night (Sunday and Monday), getaway in Glenelg by way of some discount vouchers she secured as part of a promotion encouraging people to visit the region over the Summer. Glenelg Motel The recently refurbished rooms of the Glenelg Motel raise your expectations from what the exterior of the rooms themselves suggest, which is a very 1970's vibe of your standard motel with parking right outside your front door (and not much else). Our room was spacious, and the modern furnishings were easily to the standards of any hotel we've stayed in over the last few years. The rooms look very modern with everything you...

Mocha and Mascarpone by TET 2026 Original Acrylic Painting on Canvas (40 x 50cm). Buy My Original Artwork or High Quality Prints (ArtPal Store) Prints Available here . (RedBubble Store) M ocha and Mascarpone are so named because naming them 'Coffee and Cream' seemed a little on the nose, no matter how nice that sounds. The theme is friendship between two, somewhat exotic cats, Mocha, clearly Siamese, while Mascarpone says she is Siberian. Are they an item? I guess it’s all in the interpretation of the look these two are exchanging in the warm, evening light, the eyes, the negative space… that sharp blue glance from Mocha versus Mascarpone’s half-closed, content grin In these new cat paintings I’m attempting to create more story and interaction between my cats within each new painting. This artwork being inspired by two of my earlier cat paintings, Shakira , and Rose’s Tale . Initially it was going to be those two cats but my recent cats are more stylised, making these two feel...

Books Available from Lulu (Recommended) or Amazon , Stickers, Coasters, Mugs Visit the Resident Dragon Art Time Store . E victed from his cave, so the city can build a new freeway, aspiring actor and fire dragon, Red, temporarily moves into the suburban home of his friend, and former short film director, TET, and his two pets, Cool Froyd the Cat and Grrr Dog. Resident Dragon Book 1 A Dragon's Gotta Live Somewhere. This is the premise that starts my thirteen book series of joke a day gag cartoons, of which the first three are now available for you to own and share with your dragon, cat, dog, or human white male (business suit wearing) loving friends! Intended as an alternative coffee table book, the humor is family friendly and relatable to anyone who's ever lived in a shared house with pets (and possibly a dragon), while the art is bright and bold enough to simply be enjoyed by younger readers even though these are not intended to be children's books. These three premium, ...

ArtHelper prides itself on being all 'human-made' art. T he idea of an AI, trained specifically on art business marketing, that can not only offer advice on marketing your work, but also assist with creating all the content too, is certainly appealing. Especially to those of us who would rather spend more time creating our art than trying to sell it. ArtHelper does just that whilst attempting to be your 'home' on the internet. A destination for your profile and portfolio, a marketplace for your art, and a directory of artists as well, with one distinction - all the art must be human made. Which, for you AI artists, doesn't count the prompt for AI generated art - because the idea, according to ArtHelper's creators, isn't the art. Which is a fair point, in terms of promoting art 'made by a human', but can get kind of murky when you understand that not all AI art is generated from a single prompt... and 'found object art' isn't actually ...

O ver the weekend my state, South Australia, went to the polls to elect our government for the next four years. Going in it was considered a pretty safe bet the current Labor government, with Peter Malinauskas as Premier, would be returned. The real drama would be how the numbers looked for every other 'headline party' (those the mainstream media actually report upon) in the mix. The election didn't disappoint. Labor won with a record breaking landslide victory. The Liberal Party took a major hit with a record breaking swing against it in almost every seat, while One Nation had it's best result in any election since 1998, and even picked up its first ever lower house seat in an election outside of Queensland. Interestingly that seat was at the expense of Labor's former member for Light (my electorate) who decided to challenge himself by trying for the seat of neighboring electorate, Ngadjuri. Had he stayed with Light he would've been fine, as we remain a Labor s...

W hen I first saw the trailer to Caught Stealing  I was immediately interested in seeing the film. It looked like it was going to be something of dark, edgy, gangster, comedy film, with twists and turns, very much in the vein of Guy Richie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels  (1998) movie, which I really enjoyed. Obviously, I didn't see this in theatres, and am reviewing it now because I've finally caught up with it on Amazon Prime. (As a side note, my local cinema closed down so seeing things in cinemas is a little more of a luxury these days). I was also interested to see Austin Butler in a staring role post Elvis (2022) because I think he's definitely an actor to watch after that performance. In Caught Stealing, former rising star baseball player, Hank Thompson (Butler) is unknowingly drawn into a world of late 1990s gangsters, when he, under protest, agrees to look after his dubious punk rocker neighbor, Russ' (Matt Smith) cat, while he rushes off to attend ...

Moya - Life like Humanoid Robot by Droid Up. T oday's post title is a paraphrase from the reboot series of Battlestar Galactica , " The Cylons look like us now. " and, while it's not actually true that todays robots look like us, we're getting awfully close with a new Chinese robot named Moya by tech company Droid Up. The video below by YouTube channel Pro Robots tells you everything you need to know about Moya and then goes on a skeptical and cynical rant about how Moya is unlikely capable of everything Droid Up claims while comparing it to other robots in the market. This AI Robot Has Warm Skin and Synthetic Muscles I certainly get where their skepticism is coming from when the only information you have is flashy promotional material provided by the company and no substantial live demonstration. However we're not that far off from this type of humanoid robot which is likely being designed for customer service type roles rather than industrial manual labor (...

M odern Australia is not a country that starts wars. We're more than ready to help finish a war but we don't start them. We should not allow ourselves to become involved in unnecessary wars, such as the one Israel, with the assistance of the USA, just started with Iran. Ideally, all wars are unnecessary, but in reality sometimes countries do need to defend themselves from unnecessary attacks born from the poor leadership of opposing countries. Country leaders, that believe they can solve a problem by starting a war, should do so with their own resources. Answer to their own citizens. Don't drag allies into your weak minded drama.  However bad Iran's leadership is (or was, since reports of the death of Iran's Supreme leader are confirmed) starting a war to forcibly remove their leadership is never going to result in smiles all around. Especially in a region of the world that subscribes to 'an eye for an eye' politics (looking at you Israel). It will almost ce...

Cat Amongst the Pigeons by TET 2026-02-22 Original Acrylic Painting on Canvas (15.5" x 12"). Buy My Original Artwork or High Quality Prints  (ArtPal Store). Alternatively, buy prints of the artwork through  RedBubble . I n my previous post, Painting Whimsical Cats (and probably other stuff) Again After Almost a Decade Away From Traditional Art , I, obviously, mentioned I'm painting cats again. It wasn't an empty promise. As you can see I've created my first official, new cat painting - since the previous one was actually a test piece - titled Cat Amongst the Pigeons . This painting features two firsts; the first time I've painted a cat with pigeons, and the first time I've broken the edge of my white border with the image. (In case I'm not explaining that well, the cat's ears extend into the white border that is usually masked off with tape during painting). I just didn't want to clip the cat's ears! WIP Collage of Cat Amongst the Pigeons ...